Once Upon a Dream
by maryhartleys
Summary: When Princess Aurora and Captain Hook meet, they both inexplicably feel like they somehow already know each other... References the TV show The Tudors


1. The Princess

Princess Aurora walked fast in order to keep up with her companions. Unlike the others, she was wearing a corset under her light purple and white gown, which constantly pinched her torso and made breathing a challenge. Her delicate satin slippers were not suited for trekking in the wild outdoors, but instead were meant for walking and dancing in beautiful palaces. Bruises and even a few blisters covered her feet, but she did her best to not complain and hide from the others just how painful and difficult the journey was on her. Her gown kept snagging on wayward roots, bushes, and branches in the forest that seemed to reach out and grab her, insistent on making it impossible for her to keep up with the others

The group that she was traveling with consisted of a female warrior named Mulan, and two women from a mysterious and faraway world called Storybrooke that they were fervently trying to find a way back to. They wore strange clothing, and although the two appeared to be around the same age, they were actually mother and daughter. The daughter was Emma Swan, a strong and forceful woman who had only been in this land when she was a newborn. The mother, Snow White, was originally from this land, and had been a princess just like Aurora was. It was Snow White's stepmother, the evil queen Regina, who had cursed their entire land and exiled most of its people to Storybrooke. For some inexplicable reason, some people and areas were spared from the curse. All the same, their land was no longer as safe as it used to be. A majority of the people who were not exiled decided to band together to fend off the evils that still remained in their crippled world, and created a camp where they all lived together.

The four women were all returning to this camp after having failed at finding a portal that could take Snow and Emma back to Storybrooke. They had all traveled to Snow's palace in hopes of finding a portal there. When they were at the palace they found out that the camp's fearless leader, Lancelot, had in fact died long ago and Regina's mother Cora had been disguising herself as him all this time. Snow and Emma had almost made it through a magical wardrobe that would have acted as a portal to their world, but when they realized that Lancelot was not who he seemed to be, Emma destroyed the portal in order to prevent Cora from getting to their loved ones in Storybrooke.

Throughout their journey, Mulan and Emma were often annoyed with Aurora's slow speed and general inexperience with how to live outside of a palace, but Snow felt pity and sympathized with Aurora's predicament. She remembered all too well how restrictive the life of a princess could be. When she ran away from the palace and started living out in the wilderness, she at first had no clue about how to fend for herself and take care of her herself; before, there had always been numerous servants to do all of that for her. Performing what average people would consider easy and simple tasks, like finding food, were a challenge for her because she had never been taught those skills. Instead, she had taken lessons that taught her impeccable manners, all the different dances that a lady needed to know for balls, among other numerous skills she needed in order to be a princess her kingdom could be proud of. Luckily, she had befriended seven dwarves that had taken her under their wing and taught her the ropes of living out in the wilderness.

So far however, Aurora had had no such luck. Only a few days ago she had been woken up from a terrible curse by her lover's kiss, and soon after, (lost him to a wraith?). She quickly had to escape with Mulan to the safety of camp and leave her lover, Prince Philip's, soulless body behind to lay where she herself had lain only a day before. Aurora had not had nearly enough time to be able to adapt and grow accustomed to her surroundings and new way of living. Yet here she was, walking across the kingdoms with three women who she barely knew, braving dangers such as ogres and dark magic wielders (it was not her first time facing a woman as evil as Cora was however…a chill went up Aurora's spine just thinking about Maleficent).

The four were finally getting near to the camp, and Mulan broke the contemplative silence that had plagued the group ever since they left Snow's palace by saying, "We need to figure out what we will tell the others about what happened to Lancelot before we reach the camp."

Snow grimaced at the mention of her fallen friend. Lancelot had protected her and looked out for her numerous times, and she still had not completely accepted the fact that she would never again see her loyal friend. However, she cleared her throat and overcame her grief to answer, "I don't think we should tell them that Cora was impersonating him. It will just make everyone panic, and that is the _last _thing we need right now. Now that we know Cora is out there, we need to stick even closer together if we want to have a chance at defending ourselves from her."

Emma nodded in agreement with her mother and added, "If they find out that Cora was hiding amongst them all this time, they might start to distrust one another and could end up turning on one another, wondering if the people they know are truly who they say they are. The group could break up, instead of staying unified like they need to in order to stand up against Cora. We should explain Lancelot's absence to them by saying that he died an honorable death and that Cora escaped."

Snow smiled sadly at Emma's suggestion; although it was heart-breaking that Lancelot had been murdered, she knew that he would approve of being remembered like that. He may have renounced the Round Table, but he had still held many of those ideals close to his heart.

Aurora frowned however, and just as they were about to reach the tower where the sentries were constantly on the lookout for intruders entering the camp, she complained, "I don't think I can do this, I'm not a very good liar."

"Oh it's not really a lie, Aurora. Lancelot did die an honorable death, he just died longer ago than we're admitting to them. And Cora did escape from us," Snow explained.

Emma jumped in, "Just leave the particulars to us Aurora. Remember, the reason why we're doing this is because we don't want to cause unnecessary panic among your people."

Aurora was about to voice her disagreement with Emma's opinion that the panic amongst the people would be 'unnecessary' (after all, Cora _was_ incredibly dangerous, and the people in the camp needed to be aware of this) when suddenly Mulan forcefully put up her hand, silencing them all from their discussion.

"The tower", she said with a hint of fear creeping into her voice, "there should be sentries there. We always have sentries guarding the entrance."

Everyone looked up at the tower. Mulan drew out her sword and motioned for the others to stay close to her. They all came rounding around the bend that was obstructing the view of the camp. When they did they saw smoke rising from several places in the ground, and dead bodies strewn across the entire camp.

The putrid smell of smoke and death filled their noses and lungs, making it hard to breathe. It didn't look like there was a single person in the camp that had been left alive.

"Oh my God."


End file.
